January Wrap-Up

And just like that, 2026 is well underway! Overall, I had a really good month with several fun events and one work trip. I felt a little sluggish coming off the December/New Year holiday time off, but felt I got into a better groove once I had a recovery 3 day weekend for the MLK, Jr holiday.

Social

The highlight was our France-y Pants party, but there were a lot of social events this month. We had lunch with our friend Barnaby and his partner, whom we hadn’t seen in awhile. We went to Selby’s with a friend to share a bottle of wine with the sommelier: a 2014 Domaine de la Grange des Peres from the Languedoc region and a Syrah-dominant blend. This was super enjoyable because he loved the wine and described it so well at various taste points through the evening. We were also there for Selby’s after dark and may have heard Apple Bottom Jeans in lieu of their normal lounge music. There was an informal birthday party at Dutch Goose for a neighbor friend. I went to a power poker party that was beautifully hosted by a book club friend.

Book club had an author appearance, which was quite good. She was a delight to talk to.

And finally, I went to a dog’s 2nd birthday party, not kidding.

Food and Drink

Several highlights this month. During the wine sharing at Selby’s, I ordered the duck which was exceptional. Our friend was feeling celebratory at the end of a huge local meeting (JPM), so she ordered cavier and champagne that she shared. So, it was a very luxe meal.

SMS used our pasta attachment (thanks Santa/Mom & Dad) to make a delicious pasta dinner.

On MLK Jr day, SMS and I treated ourselves to oysters and lunch at Clark’s.

On my call weekend, we met up in San Carlos for Hong Kong style milk tea. It was delicious!

Work

I went to a meeting in Orlando, which went really well. I felt that I met more people and I’m starting to make meaningful professional connections and friendships. This is a great feeling because up until this meeting, I haven’t been feeling this way. But, you know, sometimes you just have to put in the time and effort and with this meeting, I feel like I hit my stride. I also ran into my former co-resident. We usually forget that the other will even be at the meeting, but then we grab lunch together and catch up. He’s also going to come to my Navy Reserves retirement party in May!

I decided against submitting an abstract for an October meeting, mostly because I didn’t have time to run the stats. But I will work on it this month and get it sent out for publication. I’ve been sitting on the data too long and need to complete the project!

I had a case that melted my mind. I felt like I was trouble-shooting for hours when, in fact, it was only two. A patient with significant mental health issues had placed rocks in the ears, (right) nose, and throat. The ears and nose were no problem, but the rock stuck in the throat was a lot harder. Interestingly, when people get something stuck in their throat, it tends to be in the upper esophageal sphincter. The cricopharyngeus muscle spasms around the foreign object, food bolus, etc and then the object is stuck but luckily, does not cause any airway issues since it’s really the esophagus that’s the problem. I used several different approaches to try to remove the rock but it was too smooth and large for any of my instruments. Finally, I pushed it down the esophagus with my rigid esophagoscope and finally, finally got it into the stomach. The GI and general surgery folks were somewhat annoyed that it was now their problem but really, I did my best and I did succeed- I got it out of the neck! BTW, alls wells that ends well- it ended up spontaneously passing and did not get stuck at sphincters along the way, e.g. the pylorus and ileo-cecal junction.

Finally, I had 9 days of call this month, which were extraordinarily quiet. I tend to be a little on the lucky side during call, but this week was pretty spectacular. I was at the hospital a lot during the day, but not at night.